State says USD 464’s progress not on par

McLouth district also among those cited as lacking

The Tonganoxie and McLouth school districts have been identified as not making adequate yearly progress, the Kansas State Department of Education announced Tuesday.

The two were among 33 public districts, including Leavenworth and Lawrence, to not reach the overall statewide standard of progress on standardized reading and math tests.

McLouth Middle School also was identified as not achieving state standard. MMS met reading requirements, but not math requirements, according to KSDE, which uses 2006-2007 assessment test results to determine AYP. The highest-scoring class at MMS was the sixth grade and the lowest-scoring class was the eighth grade.

In August, the Tonganoxie School District was placed on the Title 1 "needs improvement list," under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Superintendent Richard Erickson said special education at TMS was the area that did not meet AYP standards.

At Monday's school board meeting, Erickson pointed out that the school's ACT composite average scores are well above the state average, while composite averages on state assessments exceeded state requirements in several areas. He noted the state requirement in elementary schools was 69.5 percent for reading and 66.8 percent in math. At Tonganoxie Elementary School, students tested at 88.7 percent for reading and math.

State requirements were the same, 69.5 percent for reading and 66.8 percent math, for middle schools, but TMS students performed above them at 75.3 percent in reading and 70.2 percent in math.

At the high school level, state standards are set at 65 percent in reading and 55.7 percent in math. THS achievement was 74.5 percent in reading and 73.1 percent in math.

"I'm very pleased with the overall achievement in the district," Erickson said. "If it's not at one of the highest points, it's certainly at one of the highest points overall.

"But certainly we have to work on those subgroups. We want to help all kids to achieve all that they can achieve."

Erickson said Tuesday that a Tonganoxie committee was headed today to Salina to meet with KSDE officials to develop plans for some of the subgroup areas.

On Monday, Erickson passed out a letter addressed to parents and patrons that mapped out how the district plans to attain higher achievement scores:

Identify the areas of student achievement deficiency.

Provide staff development training to address the areas of deficiency.

Teams at the building and district level will be reviewing the data and developing plans to address the deficiencies.

McLouth Superintendent Jean Rush could not be reached for comment Tuesday.